The UCI Cyclo-Cross World Championships will pedal into Louisville this week, and the organizers are looking for some volunteers to help with the many events scheduled. For the first time in the international event's 63-year history, it will be held outside of Europe, at Eva Bandman Park on River Road near downtown Louisville.

You can be part of this historic event by volunteering now for the 2013 UCI World Masters and Elite Cyclo-cross Championships, which will be held from January 29 to February 3, 2013. Organizers are looking for volunteers to support all aspects of the event including at the Masters and Elite Courses, event media center, and the worlds credential center. To view all the positions and times, and to sign up, CLICK HERE.

The world championships will feature 300 top professional riders from approximately 25 countries and is expected to draw crowds of 5,000 to 6,000 per day, including fans, cyclists and officials from throughout the U.S., Europe and other parts of the world.

Cyclo-cross is booming in the United States. Over a seven year period, from 2005 to 2011, the number of cross racers more than tripled while the number of sanctioned events more doubled according to USA Cycling; the number of cyclo-cross racers (number of racers actually reported to have participated or taken a start in cyclo-cross events) grew from 31,828 to 97,954 strong while during the same period, the number of sanctioned events increased from 237 to 507.

Micah Rice, Vice President of National Events at USA Cycling, sees multiple factors that led the growth all over the country. One reason is road racers and mountain bikers looking to do something different in their off-season. “Instead of the old school method of just 'hey go ride 100 miles every day at slow pace', people are getting beyond that, they interested in doing some stuff that really raises heart rate and cyclo-cross was the immediate fix for that and people started getting into it.”

Also cyclo-cross is a great gateway into cycling. The 20- to 30-minute race time is not daunting for either beginners or for parents searching for an activity for their children. “I think a lot of people (think) well I can anything for 30 minutes, I might not want to jump into a two hour road race, we can do tins 30 minutes, it sounds like fun.”

“I think you've got a lot of race directors who are getting into it and being very successful at it, bringing in the party aspect to the sport. It's pretty inexpensive for the most part to put on a cyclo-cross race, you usually can get the use of a country park or even a city park, and it's all right there, you usually don't have any police costs, you don't have to ask the DOT for use of the road so in terms of the costs to the race director, I think it's pretty reasonable.” Micah added, “It has brought a lot of really quality race directors into that side of the sport. And so, because of that I think the number of races have increased extremely well on that side of it.”

The fun, the easy access, the training benefits, the simplicity of it are all factors that led to the growth of cyclo-cross. “We are bringing in new people through the sport of cyclo-cross, you're looking at a lot of people who raced bikes for a long time that are now deciding to pick a cyclo-cross bike.”

Unsurprisingly, the biggest number of cross racers are from a road background given that road is the biggest part of the USA Cycling membership.

Rice doesn't see the growth plateauing any time soon. “I do think that it will continue to grow, I think it will continue to bring in new cyclists, I think we'll continue to see mountain bikers and road cyclists continue to cross over.” he said. “We're doing everything that we can to get our tools to the race directors and to push the discipline forwards.”

Pushing the discipline forwards came into play when awarding the next three Cyclo-cross National Championships, USA Cycling selected Boulder, Colorado, Austin, Texas and Asheville, North Carolina to host its 2014, 2015 and 2016 Cyclo-cross National Championships respectively.

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At various times I have been a student, a soldier, a college Political Science teacher, a political campaign treasurer, and legal adviser to Louisville's Police Department and Board of Aldermen. I now practice law and share my political opinions with anyone who will listen.